The Truth
by totesbella
Summary: Ocarina of Time - Taken from the scene in the Temple of Time where Sheik reveals to Link that she is actually Zelda.


**The Truth**

"Why didn't you tell me?"  
She dropped her gaze and stared down at the stone floor, her expression one of pain.

"I'm sorry," she said as a single tear rolled down her cheek, "I wanted to. I _really _wanted to. There would have been too many questions that you would have asked that I couldn't answer." Her tearful, sapphire eyes linked back with mine.  
"Too many questions _he_ would've asked if he'd captured you". Another tear escaped her eye.  
"I'm _so_ sorry, I didn't mean to..." Her hands rose to her face, covering her eyes as she sobbed into them. The temple echoed with the sound of her cries.

I couldn't believe it. For so long I'd been looking for her and she'd been right in front of me all this time. Stood in the vastness of the temple, I couldn't feel angry. I could never be angry at her. I only felt relief. Relief that I'd finally found her after all these years. And...

Pain. A pain in my chest as I saw her standing there sobbing.  
It hurt.

I narrowed the gap between us, dropping my sword to the floor as I stepped towards her. I wrapped myself around her, holding her head against my shoulder as a single tear slipped from my eye.  
"It's okay," I whispered in her ear and she hugged me tighter, her hands and face against my chest as she cried into my tunic.

We stood like this for a while in a never-ending embrace, the faint streams of sunlight in the darkness cutting through the stained-glass windows. Even though I'd been here so many times before, not for a long time had I felt so safe. Actually, it had been a long time since I'd felt safe. Over seven years in fact, back when I was a kid in the forest, dreaming of adventures. But even then I didn't feel like I belonged. But here, in the middle of it all, I finally felt...

Content.  
I could die right now and I'd die happy. We'd come so far. But we'd lost so much.

Her cries eventually lessened to whimpering and whimpering to silence. She stayed with her face wrapped in my tunic for a while longer but eventually looked up at me.  
"So, what now?" she asked. Her eyes sparkled with the remnants of leftover tears, "Where do we go from here?"  
"There's only one thing left..." I replied. I looked towards the door of the temple. Through the narrow gap left by the open door, I could just make out the silhouette of the castle.  
"_Him_."  
She nodded slightly in agreement but her expression was one of concern.  
"But," I met back with her gaze, "You can't come with me." Her eyes remained fixed on mine but her hands pushed on my chest, creating a gap between us.  
"No," she said sternly, "I will not let you go alone".  
"Yes, you will," I replied, "I'm not risking you getting hurt. I've already lost you once, I won't lose you again." I turned and walked towards my sword. I knelt down to pick it up when her hand met my face delicately. I paused and looked up, our eyes linking.  
"But you've already done so much," she whispered as she gently ran her thumb across my eyebrow and over the stitches of the vertical split I'd gained in my most recent encounter. "I can't let you get hurt for me anymore."  
Her face was close to mine now, a look of hurt in her eyes. I looked at her face for the first time up close, noticing the shades of blonde in her hair, the complexity of her skin, the still sore, crimson scar below the right side of her lip.  
"You've been hurt too," I said moving closer, taking her chin in my hand and gently brushing over the scar on her chin. She closed her eyes and turned her face so that her lips ran across my hand. They were soft. With my other hand, I picked up my sword and stood up, helping her from the floor and placing my sword in its sheath. We were now face to face, my hand, with a glowing triangle in the right hand corner, in hers. Then, looking into my eyes, she spoke.

"Listen, there's been something I've been wanting to tell you," she smiled. "I ..."

There was a sound.  
An excruciating, searing sound which echoed around the temple accompanied by an indescribable bright light. It only lasted for a second, if that, but it was loud. The sky outside had grown dark and our hands were no longer linked. Precariously, I took my arm from shielding my eyes...

I took a step back in horror.

A thick pane of shining glass surrounded her, separating us. I looked up at her and I saw it in her eyes; fear. She was hammering against the glass, shouting. Shouting something, but I couldn't hear her.

"You thought I wouldn't find you..." A deep, bitter voice engulfed the room, followed by a long, dark cackle. His voice.

"No," I muttered angrily under my breath. I made to punch the glass surrounding her in an attempt to break it but as soon as my knuckles brushed against the glass, an electric current threw me ten feet backwards. I groaned as I landed on my back, my shield cushioning my fall. He let out another evil cackle.  
"At first I wondered why the triforce of courage chose you as its host, but now I see why. You have courage kid but you aren't half stupid." He laughed.  
"Shut up," I muttered, heaving myself up, my knuckles grazed and bleeding. "What have you done to her?" I shouted. He laughed again.  
"She'll be coming with me. With two pieces of the triforce, I'll almost be on my way to supreme power. Then I'll be coming back for you, kid."

I ran closer to the glass. She was still there, shouting. Shouting my name. I could just figure that out, even if I couldn't hear her.  
"I'm going to save you, Zelda," I mouthed to her. And she must have understood because she stopped shouting for a moment and looked at me.  
"Try to stop me kid, I welcome you to," he laughed as the glass rose from the ground, the princess with it, "The princess is mine, Link!"

And with that there was a bright light and the glass, the cackles and Zelda had gone.


End file.
